Somewhere And Anywhere With You
by Beckon
Summary: She had seen plenty of beaches and ocean sights before but this… this just seemed far different than those ones. There was something here… something that the other ones didn't have.


**A/N: I honestly can't believe I finally wrote a Dark Cloud story. The game pretty much made my childhood and I'm really quite surprised at how well this story came out and how easy it was for me to type it. Now, to be honest, I haven't played Dark Cloud 2 in YEARS and even then, I watched my sister play it for a majority of the time and took over every now and then. (I, however, dominated the first Dark Cloud and loved it.) So I apologize if the characters are off a bit, this just tells me I need to brush the dust off the game and start it over once more.**

The feel of the sun against the bare skin of her shoulders slowly began to draw her away from the cozy sleep that had befallen her. A soft groan moved from her lips as her fingers buried themselves into the nearest pillow before she dragged it over her head; trying whatever she could to deny the sun's rays from waking her up completely. But, it was already too late. She could feel her body slowly draw itself from unconsciousness and seemed like it was already preparing her for the day ahead; her mind was still focused on the comfy position she had settled in on between the cotton sheets and slightly mangled bedspread.

But the sound of light laughter from outside caught her attention. Pushing the pillow from her face, she stared up at the dome-like ceiling above her; eyes watched as the fan slowly rotated its blades continuously in the same circular motion for a few minutes. She shook her head before eventually she stretched out the rest of the sleep from her body and slowly pulled herself across the disheveled bed. Fingers grabbed onto the pale windowsill before she dragged herself up and pushed open the window itself. The sun burned her red eyes for a moment and caused her to wince away from its powerful rays; it took a moment before her blurred vision cleared up to take in the beautiful scenario just outside her window.

The ocean water was a brilliant, crystal-blue shade that almost appeared transparent in the sun; even a few feet from the shore line, she could still see the ocean floor underneath. Gentle waves rolled in and rolled back out like gracious guests before they returned once more to repeat the motion again and again. White sand spread out as far as the eye could see, or at least up to the rocky caverns that lead into the Ocean's Roar Cave. It looked far better than any pictures in the text books she had read; in fact, it looked almost far more beautiful than the ones she had in her time. She had seen plenty of beaches and ocean sights before but this… this just seemed far different than those ones. There was something here… something that the other ones didn't have.

The sound of salt water hitting the side of the iron house and the feel of a few droplets striking her face was enough to knock her out of her daydream-like state.

"Are you going to sit in your window all day or get off your butt and come outside?"

And that's when she noticed the one thing all the other places were missing.

His blonde hair always seemed to be styled in odd and uneven locks with them being longer in the back but relatively short in the front- still enough to partly fall into his face though. He had bright green eyes that could've challenged the color of the aquatic plant life if they wanted to; a quick-draw grin that almost out bested the sun when it came down to shining. He was partly submerged in the fluorescent water with the lower half of his body almost gone from sight. And yet, still despite the fact that he was several yards from the shoreline, he still wore that stupid hat of his. She hated that hat- well only just enough to annoy him with it.

"Will you still be wearing that stupid hat when I come out?" Monica teased.

"It is not stupid." he defended.

Shaking her head with a chuckle, she propped one arm against the round window frame while the other one dangled freely outside; feeling the full warmth of the sun against her bare forearm. "Do you ever get tired of swimming in the ocean?"

"Do you get tired of time traveling?" Max questioned.

"Hmmm…. Trick question." she replied with a low hum in thought. "It depends on what I'm traveling for."

"Well then… what are you traveling for?"

"I'm hoping if I time travel enough, it'll rip open a hole in time and space and made that hat of yours non-existent." she replied casually.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Why didn't I see that one coming?"

"Maybe because of that stupid hat-"

"I get it." he interrupted with a soft laugh. "Don't you ever run out of hat jokes?"

"No, you see in my time, we have this monopoly of hat jokes that we like to pull on people in the past; in fact, we usually grab history books and point at all the weird hats people used to wear. And we're thankful that people evolved on past that phase of fashion."

"Yeah, well you're in my time now, so you're just going to have to deal." he remarked.

She answered with a quick raspberry before she leaned her upper body more out of the window; feeling the warm ocean breeze push the pink strands that had messily fallen into her face. Looking around at the rather empty pier around her, with only a few other rounded houses here or there, and a lighthouse behind her, there wasn't much else to see when it came down to neighbors. "Where's Claire and Donny? I thought they were usually out by this time."

"They went back to town for a bit." he shrugged. "Unfortunately, I guess that means you're stuck with me and my stupid hat."

"Well in that case, I'm going back to bed." Monica commented as she started to pull herself back inside.

"Fine then, I'll just enjoy this sun all to myself." he called after her. "I might build a sandcastle and after that, I just might go exploring for that ghost that was rumored to be here, maybe even get a picture of it."

"Ooh a ghost." she lightly mocked. "Do you really believe it's there?"

"Better than staying inside all day, Princess." Max replied with the same teasing of a mocking tone.

She wrinkled her nose playfully at him. "Give me ten minutes and we'll go see if that ghost really exists." with that, she let the window slide closed as she eventually rolled off her bed. The round house was small and consisted of a small bed to sleep in, a small bathroom area and maybe a tiny kitchen spot- it certainly wasn't a place she'd stay in for an extended period of time but it was a nice little vacation house. Stretching once more, she let out a long groan before she walked over to where the bathroom mirror hung on the wall. She ruffled up some of her hair and tried to figure out if she felt like fooling with brushing the full length of her ponytail; the answer was a no, so she just decided to pin up the bottom of the tail to the first of her many, many bands to keep it out of the water. And here came the part she hated the most. Dressing out of her warm tank top and short and into the still slightly damp, leopard-print two piece she had packed for the trip. It was a grueling process but she eventually managed to tie the top back around her neck and pulled the bottoms up snug around her narrow hips. She checked herself over once or twice to make sure everything was in place and that nothing was in malfunction before she headed out. She glanced over to see that he seemed too busy watching the aquatic life to even notice her. The heat of the sun made the pier planks hot to stop on and made the white sand even hotter to her bare feet; resulting in a quick dash to the cooling ocean water.

"Alright, let's go find that ghost." she called; watching as he turned back to her.

"You sure you're not going to scare it away wearing something like that?" he teased.

"Well if it doesn't run at the sight of your hat, I think we'll be fine." she countered as she walked over to him; feeling the water gradually move further and further up her legs till she was submerged from the waist down. "Where exactly has this ghost been sighted anyways?"

"Just underneath that cavern over there." he answered as he pointed to a small area just off in the distance. "Unfortunately it's only been seen at night, so we might have to wait a few hours."

She let out a low groan and playfully smacked the back of his head. "That would've been nice to know in the first place."

"If I had told you that, you would've spent all day in bed." he reminded as he splashed water at her.

She returned fire before she leaned in to push him back into the water; watching as the plan worked and he toppled backwards into the water. Of course, he managed to knock his hat off in time so it wouldn't get drenched but she quickly snatched it in mid-air for herself. She held a slight smug look on her face for him when he finally resurfaced before she fitted the hat on herself instead. "What do you think?"

"Nice hat but the rest needs work."

"Oh you little…"

Monica only grinned in return. "So, what should we do now?"

"There's always building sandcastles or fishing or I guess we could go explore the caves again." he started as he shook his head to get the loose water droplets from his hair.

"Exploring it is." she answered as she already started on down towards rocky caverns. They had spend plenty of time in them before, years ago when they were busy clearing out all the monsters inside, but she still enjoyed the rocky architecture and cave formations; every now and then there would be a rare cave drawing to look at. She listened as he followed quickly after her before she ducked down in time to avoid his quick grab for his hat back; laughing when he fell face-first into the water when the move failed. "Like you're getting it back that easily!" She called. "I guess I'm just too quick for-!" She was abruptly interrupted when he grabbed her by the legs and managed to flip her backwards the moment he resurfaced.

Her body arched back before she felt the surface of the water break beneath her weight. It was a rush of cold water that engulfed her completely before she felt her lower back brush against the sandy ocean floor. She put her hands against the loose grains before she pushed herself back up to the surface; gasping when she broke free.

"You got my hat wet!"

"You got my hair wet!" she fired back as she settled herself back on her feet; feeling the heaviness of her bangs as they stuck to her forehead. "It's going to take forever for it to dry now."

"And so is my hat." he reminded as he tried to go for it once more.

She side-stepped him and managed to catch his mid-section in her arms as she pushed him back with her bodyweight. The two stumbled slightly before he eventually lost his footing against the loose sand and toppled back; taking her with him. It was a heavy collision that left them both slightly half in the water and half on the shoreline. Letting out a long groan, she pulled her arms free and she draped them over his shoulders before she propped her chin up on his chest. "Truce?"

It took him a moment before he rested a hand on her back. "Yeah, truce."

"What are you two doing?" a voice called; startling them both.

"Exploring caves!"

"Looking for ghosts!"

"Oh… okay." Claire laughed from the pier; her arms filled with different bags. "Well uh… have fun. Oh, by the way, love the hat!"

She shook her head and pressed her forehead against his sternum as she laughed into his chest. "Good morning, Max."


End file.
